David Leggett

Designer / Developer / Consultant

Design for growth,
Build for business.

Howdy, I'm a designer/developer who has spent over 10 years helping small and medium sized companies grow in
increasingly competitive spaces.

My skillset spans across design,
development, business, video, print and marketing disciplines, making me uniquely equipped to
help your business thrive either as an all-in-one design and development solution, or as a part of
your existing team.

Contact David

My History

Below is a selection of important events that have impacted my life and career.

Aug 31, 2015

Return to UX Booth as Chief Design Officer

Following the acquisition of Python Safety in 2015, David Leggett returned to UX Booth as Chief Design Officer. The popular user experience publication launched a brand new design on March 7th, 2016. The new design features a new visual aesthetic, many performance improvements, and new administrative/editorial features allowing UX Booth to deliver even more engaging articles to a growing community.

May 1, 2015

Python Safety acquired by Capital Safety

“We will work as teammates. We will succeed together or not at all.” — Python Safety Core Company Values

In 2011, I joined the leadership team of a local startup, Python Safety, where we started building a company designed to eventually be acquired. A few short years later, all of our work paid off when we were acquired by Capital Safety, the global leader in Fall Protection.

During my time at Python, I was fortunate enough to be mentored by Mark Caldwell (co-founder of Purewire, later acquired by Barracuda Networks), Jeff Lake (VP of Field Ops and Federal Ops at CipherTrust, later acquired by Secure Computing Corporation), and the founder of Python Safety, Billy Mathews. Over the years, I had the pleasure of serving alongside an incredible team that anyone would be proud to work with.

From the start, I knew there would be a time when Python and I would go our own ways, and I'm overjoyed that I was able to see the company through an acquisition before my departure. While Python granted me so many opportunities to grow and learn, I knew that I eventually would shift the majority of my focus back to web design and development. While photography, video, and print design are all fields I enjoy working in, my passion is for business and the web.

I'll never be able to fully express my gratitude to every person that helped make Python the company that it was, and still is. Every person there will always have a special place in my heart.

Oct 24, 2014

First studio product video

Ok, maybe not my first product video... but this is the first time I had access to a track system, dollie and some actual video lighting equipment instead of making due with flood lights. Video is always a field I have struggled with, so while I doubt I'll ever open up a video shop, I think I would be open to more video work in the future.

New Client: Georgia Tech Business Network

Project Launch: Legislative Tracker

Python Safety hires David Leggett as Director of Marketing and Design

Nov 6, 2012

Michael Caldwell elected, becoming the youngest State House Representative in the USA

In 2011, I helped Michael Caldwell manage his successful campaign for State House in Georgia. We ran the most accountable and transparent campaign Georgia has ever seen by refusing lobbyist donations, self-limiting our own donations, and pledging self-imposed term limits.

On November 6, 2012, Michael Caldwell would win the election making him the country's youngest representative at the time. He defeated an 8-year incumbent, and then returned all unused campaign money back to donors to prevent him from having an advantage in future elections.

My role in the campaign was that of a dual manager / designer. I designed and developed marketing materials including a campaign website, assisted with coordinating canvassing efforts, played a part in strategy, wrote copy, and helped produce a campaign video.

New Client: BuySellAds

New Client: Tangoo

New Client: West Reed

West Reed became PitchMaps not too long ago. I assisted them with front-end and back-end development, photography, and visual design for several of their clients.

Jun 21, 2011

New Client: Python Safety

My initial responsibilities at Python included designing and developing a website, product photography, creating a product catalog, and developing other marketing tools for the sales team. I would later join Python Safety full-time as their Director of Marketing and Design and a member of their leadership team.

New Client: Audiogon.com

New Client: Murfie.com

New Client: Phuse

Phuse brought me on to work with several of their clients as a front-end designer and developer.

Jan 1, 2011

Began working as front-end developer and consultant for hire

By 2011, I had spent 7 years running a number of publications, several of which had been successful endeavors. My experience designing, developing, and managing these websites translated nicely into a skill set that worked very well as a freelancer.

I decided to get out of my comfort zone as a publisher, and applied my years of experience to help other companies grow.

Dec 11, 2009

Bought my first home

By the end of 2009, I had saved up enough to buy a Condo in Woodstock, GA. This would be my home and base of operations until 2014.

Feb 1, 2009

Andrew Maier and I co-author a chapter “Usability Principles for Modern Websites” published in The Smashing Book

UX Booth Launches

UX Booth is a website by and for the User Experience community. It was founded by Andrew Maier, Matthew Kammerer, and myself.

The publication went on to become one of the largest in its space, and continues to flourish under the leadership of Matthew Kammerer today.

Oct 1, 2008

Moved to Kennesaw Georgia

When I was 19, I moved to Kennesaw, GA where I became close friends with my college roommate Michael Caldwell. Years later, I would help him become the youngest State House Representative in the country, and also work with him at Python Safety.

May 8, 2008

Joined Twitter

Tutorial9 Launches

Tutorial9 was ultimately the product of several years of writing tutorials across multiple websites. I founded Tutorial9 to consolidate my efforts to one site where I and others could share lessons with a community of graphic and web designers.

Tutorial9 went on to have 150,000 subscribers, hundreds of articles and resources, and a loyal community of followers. Freelance work drew me away from Tutorial9. Since there was no company structure at Tutorial9, the site died over time. This experience helped me learn how important it can be to create a company that can survive when a key player departs.

Oct 9, 2007

Portal released by Valve

A game that will forever encourage me to design a game of my own someday.

Sep 25, 2007

Halo 3 Released

Why in the world is Halo 3 featured here? It was well received, but not exactly groundbreaking...

I owned a fan site for Halo 3 that ended up being pretty successful. Actually, to this day I have yet to own a website that has done more traffic in a single day than my Halo 3 fan site: 243,821 unique visitors and 1.6 million pageviews in a day.

It's been a personal goal of mine to beat this record ever since.

Jun 1, 2006

Met Matthew Kammerer and Andrew Maier

These two gentleman have both had a profound impact on my life and career. Together we started UX Booth in 2008. Later in 2011, I began doing UX contract work with Andrew.

Mar 26, 2006

Twitter launches

No one really knew how to define Twitter back when it launched.

Was it a social network? No not really...

A micro-blogging service? huh?

Years later, we still don't know what it is, only that we like it enough to warrant a $31 Billion IPO.

WordPress Initial Release

Over the years, many of my own sites were powered by the WordPress platform. In many ways, the early years of my career could be attributed at some level to WordPress making it easy to build online publications. It will always be a platform I really llike, even if I tend to opt for MVC frameworks now.

Jan 1, 2003

Began writing Photoshop tutorials

Aug 2, 1999

David discovers HTML

10-year-old me is given the gift of Adobe PageMill, groundbreaking software that made web design more user friendly in the 90s.

Thanks Mom & Dad! You got me started down a path that I ended up falling in love with.